What’s more, it is not at all clear that some of Abbas’ misgivings are any less ideological than Netanyahu’s. Though Fatah has been politically rehabilitated as the preferable alternative to Hamas’s violent and theocratic ideology, it remains a resolutely anti-Zionist organization. Abbas makes a show of pragmatism for peace with Israel, but his sincerity remains very much in question. Case in point: his rejection of the very idea of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.

Most importantly, the current situation remains in stasis because there is precious little to motivate either side to change it. The truth is that the status quo is not, at the moment, a bad one. The West Bank is experiencing impressive economic growth, and the Israeli economy remains surprisingly stable despite global financial upheaval. Violence is at a minimum, security services are cooperating, and both sides have a common enemy in Hamas.

Something like peace, in other words, is taking shape in Israel and the West Bank, though neither side may be willing to call it that. It is now quite possible that drastic moves toward a formal agreement would cause more violence than they would prevent.

That said, there are long-term pressures on both parties that will not go away. For Israel, there are the settlements, and the looming demographic problem they represent. For the Palestinians, there is the powder keg of Islamic radicalism and the refugee issue.

Sooner or later, domestic pressure will begin to build on both Netanyahu and Abbas to deal with these problems. Abbas’ recent moves toward requesting international recognition of a Palestinian state may be one such reaction. Nonetheless, at the moment, both men seem to believe that the status quo is the best they can make of a bad situation. As a result, both have struggled, in a quiet but stubborn manner, to preserve it.

Despite the best efforts of a president desperate for a breakthrough and seemingly indifferent to the possible consequences, they appear to have emerged victorious.

13 Comments, 10 Threads

I am sorry to see such a “balanced” view. Here are some jarring facts on the ground that Kerstein leaves out.

1) Abbas would lose funding that is being supplied by the West in such a settlement. His or any other Palestinian Government would have to shrink in order to accommodate to the funds available.

2) Abbas has never compromised on any issue during negotiations that has remained on the table after being made public. He still insists upon ’67 borders and an apartheid state without Jews. He still proclaims that Arabs would have to be imported into Israel under “Right of Return” though he would be acquiring a state for these folks.

3) The failure of withdrawal from Gaza augurs poorly for any Palestinian state. Indeed, further withdrawal may bring about another war all too easily. No world government will guarantee Israel’s security if it grants sovereignty to the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria. It will then be a local conflict in which Jews are whittled down slowly without recourse.

4) The wind is blowing at the UN. Israel will need every inch of territory to defend itself against world government insistence upon its truncation. Signing an agreement will negate the gains of the San Remo Conference that currently stands as the basis for Israel’s existence under international law.

Let me break this to you clearly, Israel desperately wants peace with the Palestinians and the Arab world and will do almost anything apart from national suicide to achieve this. Successive Israeli governments have made unilateral and dangerous territorial concessions to the Palestinians, Israel has made demographic and financial concessions to the Palestinians, and finally Israel has made serious diplomatic and building concessions to the Palestinians. Not one time have the Palestinians ever responded positively to these concessions, but have only made more and more absurd demands. The Arab world as well has reacted to these concessions with increased antagonism and hostility.
The Palestinians and the Arab world do not want peace with Israel, they are demanding Israel’s destruction and the genocide of the Jews, something that doesn’t seem to bother American President Barack Hussein Obama.
Obama, by failing to even recognize the Palestinians and Arab rejectionism and uncompromising positions, not only not criticizing them but rather supporting them, has only made the charade of Israeli Arab peace negotiations even more of a tragic and deadly joke than they already were.
Furthermore, no one, not the Americans, not the Europeans, and of course not the UN seems to even care that a rogue, terrorist, and genocidal Palestinian state already exists in the Gaza Strip. Indeed, no one seems to notice or care that this Hamas Palestinian terror state demands Israel’s destruction daily, and is launching missile, rocket, mortar, and terrorist attacks on Israel every single day. They only seem to pay any attention or make any criticism when Israel take self defence measures.
There is no chance that the Palestinians will ever negotiate a peace settlement with Israel because this is not their goal, their only goal is Israel’s destruction.

I get that many folks don’t spend a lot of time reading/learning history, certainly not American or European politicians.

But one only has to have a rudimentary grasp on geography to look at a map and understand that is the arab world really had their Palestinian “brothers” best interests at heart, there is plenty of real estate to go around.

The Palestinian approach to Israel has always been the same as a VERY angry spouse in a divorce proceeding. They can’t even communicate with the other without bursting into angry outbursts, and the thought of any concession, even in the case of something they hold no personal interest in, makes their head explode.

More in that vain, at least in our case, the US has an unhealthy percentage of politicians who are lawyers. They are(at least currently) being driven by an agenda to punish Israel, even when it’s illogical to do so. Apparently that is what the ivy league law schools are teaching these days.

And our fearless leader is no better than the ambulance chasers that advertise on TV here(Not that I agree with much of the foreign policy from previous administrations regarding Israel/Palestinian relations. It’s just our current one is so unbalanced in it’s muslim ideology, that the idea that it can be thought of as a fair arbitrator is absurd). If you have to be dishonest about an issue to support your views, than the truth, except in the case of suppressing it, doesn’t matter.

And the unbalanced support of the MSM towards leftist politicians only fuels the debacle of the Israeli/Palestinian “peace” process(Which I believe is true world wide).

While we are at it since the war on terror is actually a war against the political culture of the middle east why is anyone even discussing rewarding the godfathers of modern terrorism, the Palestinians, with a state? This is the appeasers’ credo; if you reward bad behavior you LESS of it, rather than more. The same idea that produced such outstanding results in the past.

President Obama is in over his head on this issue like no other issue he faces for 2 reasons: he is dealing with cagey veterans accompanied by wheels within wheels – men who deal with reality and not Obama’s coulda, woulda, shoulda view of the world based on a fantasy and luxurious view of history that success by the West is immoral and failure by the East and South equal morality, oppression and imperialism. That’s liberal kid stuff.

Second is Obama’s utter lack of knowledge of the history of the conflict in any way that could address its nuance. If that “premiere intellectual” Noam Chomsky and Norm Finkelstein fall down regularly all over this issue after having studied it all their careers, how is Obama, who perceptually sides with muslims just cuz he likes the idea, gonna come to grips with this?

Obama is totally at sea on this one and will never do a thing. The issue of the settlers in the West Bank is not a looming issue for Israel but for the Palestinian Arabs as their intransigence is shrinking their state every day. Any Palestinian leader who signs off on a two state solution that is actually attainable, meaning right of return being taken off the table, will immediately be assassinated like Sadat.

The bottom line is this: Israel, right or wrong holds all the cards, every one of them and putting up with toothless criticisms from the West preferable to violence; a larger Gaza is the example Israel has with a Palestinian state in the West Bank. The Palestinian Arabs show no sign of not continuing with the same attitudes and policies they have exhibited for over 6 decades and so they will continue to move nowhere. Peace is nowhere in sight and a demographically expelled West Bank that will become part of Israel proper in a few decades is.

Who cares anymore. Hamas and Hezbollah, who control the Palestinians, will not co-exist with Israel and want Isreal destroyed. The Palestinians LOVE Hamas and Hezbollah and have no intention of getting rid of them for the sake of the “Peace Process.” So where do you go from here? Nowhere. These people are done, finished. There will be a war soon, especially if Iran gets a nuclear bomb and either uses it on Israel or gives it to Hezbollah to use on Israel. Either way it will be close to the end of times in that part of the world and the west, including Obama, is siding with the people who want to destroy Israel. So Israel will simply wait until the Palestinians and the Iranians make their next, deadly, move.

You are basically dealing with a bunch of people who are determined to kill each other and there isn’t much we can do about it. If the Palestinians and the Israelis really, really, wanted a peace agreement, they would have had one by now. After all, they’ve only had 60 YEARS to come up with one! Nope, this is a fight to the finish and it will probably happen much sooner rather than later.

Concessions concessions consessions.. WHEN will the WORLD get ANY concessions from the Trans-Jordanians? I’m sick and tired of the PC police cow-towing to the empathy-seeking, terrorist-electing, non-self- governing wastes of space. And that’s precisely what they are, and then some for their circumstance.

Heck, the Western teet-sucking Haiti, post and prior earthquake Haiti are more together than those infections surrounding Israel.

‘The Palestinians and the Arab world do not want peace with Israel, they are demanding Israel’s destruction and the genocide of the Jews, something that doesn’t seem to bother American President Barack Hussein Obama’.
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There is now way to make both sides happy or secure at this time. Palestine is just the stick that is being used by Muslims to beat Israel. Both Jordan and Egypt could cede land to become Palestine aren’t most of these people born in what was Egypt, Jordan or Lebanon? This round of “peace talks” is just one more pathetic attempt by one more US President seeking immortality. There must be too much CO2 in D.C. for people to think and behave reasonably.